The Chaos Report

Will The President’s Ire Spur Senate Republicans To Take Another Run At Killing Obamacare?

It’s possible…

In some ways, this is what a President is supposed to do: goad congress into action on policies he supports. Here’s the problem: Trump doesn’t support any policy. He’s said next-to-nothing about what he’d like to see in a health care bill at any point in the process. Just anything’s “great”: “I have pen in hand.” And he’s willing to immediately strip benefits away from poor people to get to that anything.

All that matters is the “win.” For him alone.

Then again, it won’t be easy…

• Some reports this weekend discuss Senators lining up behind a “new” health care plan designed by Lindsey Graham. Problem is this isn’t a new plan: it’s been around for weeks. And was completely not taken seriously, especially by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who pretty much completely ignored it.

• The Graham plan is somewhat fairer than anything Republicans have proposed up until now: it would give states chunks of money, and let each state administer its own plan, adhering to certain general rules like covering pre-existing conditions. The problem: in order for appeal to radical Conservatives, it would probably have to become “meaner”: letting states apply for waivers so insurance companies could do things like not offer coverage of pre-existing conditions.

• Several reports also pointed to McConnell’s statement that “it’s time to move on” from health care. But don’t think for a second McConnell would stick to those words if he had a bill he thought could pass.

• Politico argues that firing White House Chief Of Staff Rence Preibus will make it less likely Republicans in Congress will do Trump any favors now. BS. if they had a bill they thought they could pass, they’d pass it, Preibus or not.

• The biggest reason Trump might not get his demand on health care, is that Senators want to accomplish something, and if they can make progress on tax reform, they’d probably rather move on that (which a lot of people like) vs. Obamacare repeal (which a lot of people don’t). Now they just have to sell it to the President as a potentially bigger win for him than health care.

Mini Editorial: Congress Must Resist The Urge To Pass Things Just To Get Trump To Shut Up: Call His Bluff!

Really. We know you don’t like being called “fools” and “quitters.” But this isn’t about “Republican” or “Democrat” anymore. This is about Trump vs. Everybody.

This isn’t about change. This is about break.

Senate Rules Change Trump Angrily Advocates Wouldn’t Be As Unprecedented As You Might Think (And BTW It Already Only Takes Simple Majority To Pass A Bill In The Senate)

We saw lots of people on Twitter talking about how Trump’s calls for “51 votes” on everything in the Senate is “an affront to the Founding Fathers.” Unfortunately, not exactly. The “60 vote” rule dates all the way back to…1975. (That change, BTW, was done by Democrats.) Before that, it took 67 votes (or 2/3rds of the Senate) to close debate on a bill. That rule dates all the way back to…1919. You get the idea…

Both Democrats and Republicans have messed with margins very recently: Democrat Harry Reid reduced the number of votes needed to get Presidential appointments through, except for the Supreme Court. He later famously told Politico the 60 vote rule is “going to erode, it’s just a question of when”. Republican Mitch McConnell, this year, changed it for the Supreme Court.

Also (surprise!) the President’s contention is not true, exactly: it already only takes 51 votes for a bill to pass in the Senate. What takes 60 votes is closing debate so a vote can proceed. Sometimes that process can be avoided: like recent attempts to pass a Republican health care bill were done under a process that didn’t require 60 votes, and didn’t pass anyway.

 

Trump, In Tweets, Criticizes China For Breaking Promise To Him On North Korea

The President saying “they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk.” That’s left him “very disappointed.” Then again, Trump has targeted China with threatening talk before, and done nothing.

That coming after North Korea successfully launched another missile this weekend, one that is likely capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

Trump, In Tweets, Finally Admits Russia Interfered In U.S. Election

After weeks of questioning, or denying Russia did it: his favorite theory being “if [Putin] did do it, you wouldn’t have found out about it” (an idea that apparently came from Putin himself) Trump Tweeted:

So let’s get this straight: now they were involved, only they were for Hillary?

Problem is, Trump is capable of so much bombast and bloviation that it’s hard to keep up on calling him out on this kind of subterfuge anymore.

Meanwhile, Putin is expelling 755 American diplomats from Russia, in retaliation for U.S. sanctions related to Russia’s role in the 2016 elections. Congress passed a measure by a veto-proof bipartisan vote, that would put more sanctions on Russia and limit President Trump’s ability to remove them.

We Found Another Photo Of Scaramucci Standing Over Trump, Patting Trump On The Back

As we showed you last week, another photo, almost exact same pose, adorns Scaramucci’s Twitter page.

This is how someone would pose with their enfeebled father.

How did we “find” the “new” photo? Nothing fancy: it’s one of the first that comes up when you do an image search for “Trump Scaramucci” on Google. Just out of curiosity we searched “Trump Pence”, “Trump Bannon”, “Trump Kushner”, “Trump Mattis”, “Trump Tillerson”, “Trump Ivanka”. No similar pose with any of them.

This does not bode well for Scaramucci’s longevity in the White House.The one thing Trump will not abide for very long is someone overshadowing him. According to Axios, Trump loved Scaramucci’s potty-mouthed comments to the New Yorker, (and getting rid of Preibus was certainly a “win” for “the Mooch”,) but they point out, as we have, Trump does not like being upstaged.

Trump gets all the credit…or else…

Lots of people around us already talking about who will play Scaramucci on SNL this season. (We hope it’s Kate McKinnon.) Our question: will he even last to the season premiere?